Birthday Party for Laura/X-23

[noteful]

It's a pretty low-key party, all things considered, and not significantly different than the one Parker or Meg would have thrown in a dorm room for a friend at home, not-exactly-traditional menu not withstanding.

There's music, low enough to talk over (and maybe with a little more folk in the mix than one expects to find a party). Balloons and streamers in purple and blue and red. A place to leave presents. People to meet or catch up with.

And, most importantly, a chance to wish X-23 (or Laura) a very happy birthday.

Comments

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"Yes," Meg says.

She picked it.

(And it wasn't the University of Toronto.)

"And Montreal is . . . I like being in Montreal."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"It is an island. I believe."

Knowing at least a little bit about most subjects is a byproduct of having a life spanning thousands of years and a good vantage point over Earth.

"The Mount Royal. Iroquois. Then French. And then British. And now Canadian."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"But very different than the part of Canada I grew up in," Meg says.

"Montreal is very . . . I don't know, maybe it's just that everything's in French as soon as I leave campus, but it feels . . . there's so much to see and do and learn."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"The unfamiliar often makes the world seem bigger."

Or, in Castiel's case, the universe. Even angels do not see all of it.

And it is comforting, in an odd way, to know that he has not seen everything Creation has to offer.

"The last time I walked on Earth, many people never traveled more than one hundred miles from where they were born. At a generous estimate."

The world had been very big then.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

And Creation continues, so there's always more to see.

"It's about 700 kilometres from home to university. So . . . that's about 420 miles."

(Closer to 435, really, but the 3/5 rule is handy for estimating.)

"That's a much more daunting distance without trains and cars and planes, though."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"Very."

Castiel nods.

"I find it sometimes makes people underestimate how vast their world still is. With all of its uncharted corners."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"Especially if you don't often leave your little corner," Meg says.

"When you were on Earth, did you go all over, or mostly stay in one place?"

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"I went a number of places."

"There is work to do the world over."

"And," he adds, "I have watched many places that I have not walked."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"That makes sense."

She smiles.

"And now you're here. And there are balloons. And root beer floats."

New corners all the time.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"One of the stranger corners of Creation I have visited," Castiel admits.

He suspects that his Father had been having a whimsical sort of day when he created Milliways.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"I think I'd be a little . . . perplexed, if that weren't the case. That this is one of the stranger corners of Creation."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

Castiel nods.

"And yet, the more often I visit it, the more I can see the purpose it serves."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

Meg looks around at the people celebrating Laura's birthday.

And then nods.

"I think . . . I can see that."

At least, she thinks she can see the purpose it serves for her.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"It...."

Castiel ponders how to put what he is thinking into words.

"It provides a wider perspective. Even for angels."

"It allows people to experience things that would otherwise be impossible. And learn to accept them."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"Yes," Meg says. "And to . . . to ask questions about . . . about things that you didn't even know you needed to be questioning.

"Like . . . like what's normal and what's strange."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"You found a great deal that was strange?"

There were, at the end of the day, few things that Castiel found strange beyond being curiosities.

But he has something of a head start on Meg.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"Yes," says Meg.

Because, if she's being honest, oh, yes.

"But . . . I meant more that I found that my strange was someone else's normal, and vice versa."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

Castiel smiles slightly.

"Perhaps we are all sent here to learn things."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"Perhaps."

She smiles.

"I like that better, as an explanation, than just sometimes there's a bar where the library should be."

In that it's less random and more rational.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"Things happen for reasons."

Nothing is truly random or coincidence.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

". . . some things, or all things?"

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

"All things."

"Of course."

Admittedly, he may be a bit biased.

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

Meg takes a long moment to consider this.

(Not as long as Castiel took to consider the balloon, but long enough.)

"That . . . that seems to be . . ."

She pauses again.

". . . asking a lot, maybe."

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[thursdays_angel]

And Castiel waits just as patiently as Meg waited while he had examined the balloon.

"Asking a lot to believe?"

Re: Mingle with the other guests

[noteful]

"No, more like . . . more like asking a lot of things. That everything happens for a reason. That there's no random coincidence or . . . I don't know that I'm explaining this well."